Those among us of a certain vintage will remember those carefree days as a child when if we were lucky enough to wrangle a penny or two from the pockets of mum and dad, we would head down to the local milk bar and ask for an assortment of lollies from the friendly shopkeeper.
We would usually ask for a “mixed bag” that included one of those long red ones, a thick, short blue piece, a milky white, perhaps a round green jubey thing and maybe even a yellow, purple or orange one if the shop’s lolly stocks were full. They were the days when you didn’t worry about gaining weight from sugary snacks or tooth decay.
It’s a bit similar to this week’s “mixed bag” of share price runners from across the spectrum of the mining sector.
The companies definitely consist of a batch of colourful projects, focusing on minerals of all colours. There’s copper (reddish), zinc (white, with a tinge of blue), uranium and vanadium (silver-white), rutile (red-brown), gold (gold, no, let’s call it yellow) and zircon (which comes in virtually every colour under the sun including blue, purple, green, pink and orange).
Anyway, onto our Bulls N’ Bears Runners for this week and long ASX-listed mineral exploration company Golden Deeps takes the top prize after its share price burst out of the blocks on Tuesday morning. It soared more than 225 per cent on the day and 237 per cent for the week after it nailed an 80m intersection of semi-massive copper and zinc sulphides in the third diamond hole put into its Havilah project in New South Wales’ renowned Lachlan Fold Belt.
The company grabbed the attention of market punters when it confirmed that drill-core it tested with a portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyser included significant high-grade mineralisation of up to 18.5 per cent copper and 34.8 per cent zinc. As a result, the stock jumped from a close on Monday of just 2.8c to hit an intraday trading high of 9.1c on Tuesday, with a stunning 130 million shares changing hands – representing Golden Deeps’ biggest-ever daily trading volume, by plenty.
Early interpretation of the latest data has prompted management to speculate that it has hit upon a sizeable porphyry-sulphide system possibly comparable to other major discoveries in the region, such as Newmont Corporation’s Cadia-Ridgeway mining operation.
Golden Deeps has long set its sights on unearthing a big porphyry discovery in the vast Lachlan Fold Belt that stretches from southern Queensland through to Tasmania in the south.
A mere 200km down the road to the south-west of Havilah is the massive Cadia-Ridgeway mine that holds an “eyebrow-raising” 20 million ounces of gold and 1.75 million tonnes of copper. The major deposits are linked to porphyry intrusives and are typical of the region's rich mineralisation in belts parallel to the Rockley-Gulgong Belt.
When you consider in mining terms how the size of geological belts can run for thousands of kilometres, if the project’s geology is similar to Cadia’s that 200km distance is akin to it being a next-door neighbour. No wonder the market got the party started – and now we will have to wait to see how long the ruckus rolls on for.
In a further boost for the company, it was revealed this morning that it had raised an additional $1.78 million through the issue of 30.25 million new shares priced at 5.9c. The funds raised will be used to further test the key targets at Havilah.
Osmond Resources took second place after its week began with a Tuesday morning announcement that unveiled encouraging drilling results for aluminium oxide from a recent five-hole program at its proposed Iberian One project in Spain, where it is looking to acquire up to 100 per cent of the operation through a staged earn-in agreement. But before the market had a chance to react to the news, the company’s shares were placed in a trading halt pending a “material acquisition”.
Then this morning it revealed it would acquire up to a minimum 72 per cent stake in the Orion EU critical minerals project in the south of Spain that is prospective for rutile, zircon and rare earths.
An agreement to acquire 80 per cent of a Spanish holding company that in turn holds 100 per cent of a Spanish mining company, which has the right to increase its interest to 90 per cent in the company that has a 100 per cent interest in the rights and title to Orion, equals a potential 72 per cent interest and a massive headache to your mathematically-challenged, head-scratching journalist, who can feel the room spinning.
It certainly sent market punters into a spin as well, with the shares surging to as high as 23c from yesterday’s 7c close.
The acquisition appears to be the instigator behind the tremendous leap for Osmond’s shares, with the often thinly-traded stock leaping on volume of more than 4 million units, providing a one-day return of near 229 per cent – a nice earn for a Friday to finish off the week.
It provided a return of almost 224 per cent for the week.
Osmond says there has been two rounds of exploration at the project. The first compiled 16 rock-chip samples across more than 2km and the second involved three channel samples totalling a 150kg bulk sample.
Selected rock chips and the bulk sample returned impressive rutile-titanium oxide and zircon results, with the combined tallies of the four magnet rare earths, neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium, also producing solid numbers across both sampling methods.
Assays results of between 2500 parts per million and near 4500ppm magnet rare earth oxides across four rock-chip and three channel samples indicate the prospectivity of the site.
Energy Metals came in third place this week with a stellar return of more than 107 per cent after it bagged high-grade uranium results from two holes drilled at its A4 sub-deposit within its Bigrlyi uranium-vanadium project in the Northern Territory.
Using a type of downhole gamma survey, the calibrated downhole gamma probes are widely used to calculate an equivalent uranium oxide concentration and the results were impressive. The standout drillhole returned 10.6m at 0.86 per cent equivalent uranium oxide, with several zones showing more than 1 per cent equivalent uranium.
The downhole gamma probe method is known for providing rapid results, with good levels of accuracy.
Now, while all that may sound like a mouthful, the market swallowed it whole to send the shares on a ride from Wednesday’s 7c close to touch an intraday high of 13.5c on Thursday.
The company’s stock has traded less than 100,000 shares per day on average for the past 30 days, so for 5.45 million to swap hands on Thursday shows how frenzied the demand was for its shares.
Punters appeared to like the fact that the latest drilling program was designed to expand an existing resource that sits at 6.32 million tonnes grading 1530ppm uranium oxide for a total of 21.3 million pounds.
Interestingly, chemical assays of the drill-core are used to validate results of the gamma probes. But because of the penetrative nature of gamma-rays, the equivalent uranium values relate to a bigger sample volume than chemical assays and are often considered to be more representative of the orebody.
The project, about 350km north-west of Alice Springs, is a joint venture (JV) between Energy Metals (72.4 per cent) and two other parties.
Just missing out on a podium placing was Killi Resources. In an interesting twist, the miner made the Runners list even though it delivered no news to the market this week.
The company even responded to a price and volume query from the ASX with a “nothing to see here” comment.
It did, however, recently kick off drilling at its 100 per cent-owned Mt Rawdon West project in Queensland where it is targeting its Kaa copper-gold deposit, which it classifies as a potential new epithermal system. The maiden program will consist of diamond drilling, with a focus on a 1.8km mineralised trend and beneath its ground where it found a rock-chip sample grading 238 grams per tonne gold.
The fact that drilling was underway obviously inspired some market players to hop aboard as the shares climbed more than 73 per cent from last week’s 13c close to hit a high of 22.5c on Thursday on pretty solid volumes.
The rock-chip find in early July also sent the price on a rapid ascent and punters with long memories may have thought it worthy of another bite at the cherry.
Killi has completed a soil and rock-chip program at Kaa, with samples returning elevated levels of gold, silver, copper and the hottest commodity in town at the moment, antimony.
An induced-polarisation (IP) survey has identified multiple responses under cover and the company plans to test the targets as part of the maiden campaign. It expects to complete 10 diamond drillholes from surface, with all targets in the top 200m below surface.
Epithermal gold deposits can often be among the richest deposits in the world, providing bonanza-grade gold shoots containing greater than 1000g/t gold equivalent and vertical depths for hundreds of metres. They often also contain significant lead, zinc and copper resources in addition to the high-grade gold.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Craig Nolan
